Origin of the Lionheart Name
The reign of the Hero of Bowerstone brought much prosperity to the kingdom of Albion. So much so that the population grew with leaps and bounds. This presented a problem for the people since there were not enough names for the kingdoms citizens. Towns would have so many people with the same name that confusion grew to the point that the king needed a way to differentiate his subjects. One adviser suggested that he give people close to him a title of Sir or Lady, but this did not help for long. The solution was to give people two names. The first was what they were given at birth and the second name described where they were born or what job they did or some unique aspect of their lives. Thus was the origin of the "Sir Name" which somewhere or another got misspelled and became surname. Many methods were used to create one's surname. In Oakfield, for example, there were the two bartenders working at the Sandgoose pub. The one who worked downstairs was named John and the one upstairs in the VIP section was named Jon. Now John would be off in the daytime and secretly sired many children. While the husbands worked the fields he would be sowing seed of a different kind. A larger than normal number of sons were produced by John so the surname "Johnson" became quite common around Oakfield. While Jon spent his late night off time seducing the ladies who had just finished enjoying a night at the pub. He produced many more female offspring, and John and his sons had a hard time "keeping up with the Joneses". The citizens of Bowerstone had a great debate over what name they should use. The people who lived in the Market would eventually be known as the Bowers, (often spelled Bauer), and the people of Old Town called themselves the Bowerons, (which was shortened to Brown or Barone). The head of the Counter Bandit Unit (CBU) lived in Bowerstone Market and often bragged that he could find and catch any bandit in one day. His name was Jack and he became famous as "24 hour - Jack Bower". Another common surname in the Market was that of the blacksmith Will. Of course no one used the whole word blacksmith and he was merely called Will Smith. I remember when my brother Logan would run errands for Will, as his job kept him from buying his lunch when the stalls were open. Will would always tell him, "Make sure the fish is fresh, Prince". In the town of Westcliff lived the bartender named Sam and his wife Sim. They would often argue about their children. They argued mostly about their sons because, when they wed, the daughters would use their husbands surname just to get away from Westcliff. When they were good Sam would call them Sam's son and when they were bad, of course, they were Sim's son. Sam's firstborn was not even given a first name and was simply called Samson. He later ran away with the hairstylist from Bloodstone named Delilah. She liked her men with short hair and Samson preferred to let it grow out. This caused many a spat. So much so that he finally told her, "So wreck (Sorek) my house why don't you. Just get out?" Their next oldest son was named Jay and the third was named Homer Jay. So the elder Jay was often called Ol' Jay Simmson. Ol' Jay was well know for his running skills. He would often go on hunting trips with my father and when they sat around the fire spinning yarns about their exploits, Ol' Jay would tell his tale about running. "How can you run faster than a Balverine?" someone would ask. Ol' Jay would reply, "You don't have to run faster than a Balverine, you only need to run faster than the person you're with." Everyone would laugh. Few went with. Homer Jay, on the other hand, met and married a woman named Marge. They moved off together where they found an area of large fields that contained hot springs. This area would later become known as Springfield. To make matters worse for Homer Jay, Marge had two sisters, named Selma and Patty, who worked at the agency that licensed carriages. It was called the Department of Moving Vehicles. The only thing that moved slower than the carriages was the DMV. One man, named William, came all the way from Bower Lake to Westcliff to compete in the Crucible, armed with only a spear. It wasn't long before he was eliminated because as soon as he threw his weapon to kill a hollow man he was unarmed and helpless. He really took quite a pummeling but was still upset when the management refused to let him continue. He marched back and forth in front of the Crucible, shaking his weapon in protest. Of course he became known as William Shake-a-Spear Another of my father's hunting buddies lived in Brightwood. At birth he was given the first name of Tiger. He had a strange habit of roaming the forest hitting small round stones with oddly shaped clubs made of wood and iron. He made up his own game of hitting rocks from the towers in Brightwood into the gulf off the Bandit Coast. He called his game "Gulf" and he became known as Tiger of the Woods. A well known family in Bowerstone Old Town went by the name of the Bowerone's. Marie and her husband Frank lived in the House of Goodwill and everyone knew, from the aromas that permeated the whole town, when Marie was cooking one of her delicious meals. Next door in The Bennett House lived their Daughter-in-Law Debra with her husband Raymond. Although rather plain and not much to look at, it seemed that the whole town of Bowerstone adored him. The Vendors and the Guards, the Villagers and the Travelers, The Monks and the Beggars, in fact except for his brother Robert, it seemed that Everybody Loves Raymond. My father was for a long time undecided as to what surname he should use for himself. My mother suggested to him that he use the one that he felt he had earned the most and was most proud of. And so he decided that the name of Lionheart would be the surname of his monarchy, and it was decreed that no one was to use such name without being of his bloodline or adopted into it. And so it came to pass that people got used to using two or more names. Life again became bearable and the Kingdom of Albion during the reign of Sparrow Lionheart flourished once more.